NBA: Warriors confirm Nash on board as consultant

Two-time NBA Most Valuable Player Steve Nash has joined the Golden State Warriors as a player development consultant, the reigning NBA champions confirmed on Friday. Steve Kerr, who guided the Warriors to the title in his first year as an NBA coach, was general manager in Phoenix when Nash played there, and said the Canadian has the right basketball philosophy for the Warriors. "Even though he possessed incredible individual skills and abilities, Steve always played the game with a team-first mentality, which is something that we emphasize greatly within our group," Kerr said. "We share a lot of beliefs about how the game should be played and about the work ethic that goes into being great." In his new role, which Nash spoke about on Wednesday at an appearance in Toronto, Nash will be "embedded" with the Warriors periodically throughout the season, working on-court with the team led by NBA regular season MVP Steph Curry. "I look forward to joining Coach Kerr and his great staff and helping out in any way that I can," said the 41-year-old Nash, adding he was excited at the prospect of working with the Warriors' young core group of players. Nash played 19 seasons in the NBA with the Phoenix Suns, Dallas Mavericks and Los Angeles Lakers. An eight-time NBA All-Star, he won back-to-back MVP awards while with the Suns in 2004-05 and 2005-06, becoming just the 10th player in NBA history to win the award in consecutive seasons. He announced his retirement in March, having missed the entire season for the Lakers because of a nagging back injury. He had announced in October before the season started that doctors had advised him to sit out because of back pain.